IN THE WAKE OF THE NEWS

Cubs have an old-school player in Reed Johnson

Some days, Reed Johnson does not take his dog to the park. His dog takes him.

"He brought me here this morning," the Cubs center fielder said a couple of hours before Saturday's game.

Shooter is a yellow Lab, not yet 7, and as good a dog as he may be, he did not drive his master to the ballpark. Johnson's wife did that.

It would be his first time as leadoff man in the Cubs' ever-changing lineup -- OK, let's not get Lou Piniella started on that -- but not necessarily his last. Johnson brought a .375 batting average to the park.

And while he didn't have a great day at the plate, the Cubs did put the wood to the Pittsburgh Pirates 13-1. Which means they now have a record of 8-2 in games that Johnson has started in center field.

More and more, this 31-year-old who hustles like Pete Rose and hero-worships Ty Cobb is looking like a very good fit for a team that has won 10 of its last 13 games.

Toronto cut him loose March 23, barely a week before Opening Day.

"He officially became available at 8 o'clock in the morning," Cubs general manager Jim Hendry remembered, "and I was on the phone by 8:05."

Center field was a gigantic question mark for the Cubs, who seemed set everyplace else. Felix Pie had a world of promise. So did Sam Fuld. But both were unproven, and this was to be a season when the Cubs would use any means necessary to put an end to a 99-year rebuilding project.

Johnson was in Florida at the Blue Jays' spring camp. He had missed close to three months of the 2007 season with a herniated disc in his lower back. But otherwise, where the Cubs' needs were concerned, he seemed just what the doctor ordered.

"I didn't have a lot of time," Johnson said. "My wife pretty much loaded up our car and our dog and took off for Chicago."

Too bad Wrigley Field does not have a "Dog Day" promotion as the White Sox do at U.S. Cellular Field every summer. Back when the Blue Jays would have theirs, Shooter and the popular Johnson led a pooch parade at the stadium along with teammate Ted Lilly and his dog, Kona.

Jays fans were very fond of Johnson, who was brought up in their organization out of college and acquired Shooter during his Double-A days in Knoxville. They enjoyed the way Johnson ran as hard as he knew how to first base, even on a pop fly or after a walk.

He kept a framed photo of Cobb in his locker. Few if any of today's players would have him for a role model, but Johnson somehow became attracted to the way the Georgia Peach played the game a century ago. He even personally sponsored an exhibit in a "wall of bats" at Cobb's museum in Royston, Ga.

"He's like an old-time ballplayer in a lot of ways I can think of," Hendry said of the outfielder. "He acts like one and talks like one. He goes hard every day, every play and isn't afraid to get his uniform dirty. He's a gym rat."

For a center fielder or a leadoff man, Johnson wouldn't qualify as a prototype. He doesn't draw many walks. He rarely steals bases. And he definitely isn't one of those Alfonso Soriano or Rickey Henderson types that can kick off a game by knocking a ball out of the park. His lifetime home run total is 42.

What he does is get on base. Partly because he has a good batting eye, fine-tuned at Cal State Fullerton when he was part of a College World Series team there.

Mainly he gets hit with pitched balls. A lot of them -- 80 times in the majors, 61 in the minors. You look at his left arm half-expecting to find a "Rawlings" tattoo. He goes down more often than a guy in a carnival's dunking booth.

Cobb would approve. Johnson plays all the outfield positions. He never has made an error in center field since becoming a major leaguer in 2003. Wrigley's fans caught a glimpse of what Johnson can do when he robbed Pittsburgh's Nate McLouth of an extra-base hit Friday with an over-the-shoulder catch.

Nevertheless, he became the Blue Jays' odd man out.

"When they signed Shannon Stewart in spring training, I knew something was going to happen," he said. "It made things a little easier for me, having three to four weeks to wait for it to happen so it wasn't a complete shock.

"I knew there were teams interested in me, teams that knew I could still play. I was excited to search for that team."

He did not need a St. Bernard and a search party. Hendry was on the horn with the player's agent in a few minutes and with Johnson within the hour.

It took no longer, the Cubs' GM said, because, "This is a guy I've had my eye on for two or three years."

And now Cubs fans do.

Johnson is making himself at home. He takes his dog for walks at a little park near an evangelical church in the Wrigleyville neighborhood. When he comes to the bigger park, he pulls on Cubs uniform No. 9, which once was worn by Ty Cobb's old pal, Rogers Hornsby.

Saturday's game began with Johnson catching a ceremonial first pitch from someone in a huge "Dora the Explorer" costume. He posed for a few photos and eventually ran like a frisky pup to his position in center field, which he could end up doing for quite some time.